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T O P I C R E V I E W

Joel Katzowitz

Russell Elementary School, in Smyrna Georgia, has been launching shuttles for 16 years. This year's STS-16 mission launched at 10:30 a.m. on May 8 and landed 24 hours later. I know that's a pretty short duration flight but these are elementary students for pete's sake.

My wife's high school magnet program students developed several medical experiments for the mission so I was drafted as one of the photographers. I'm telling you, this was absolutely incredible. They have a large trailer that acts as the orbiter complete with a flight deck, which you won't believe, and mid-deck with sleeping quarters. They also have a mission control room complete with audio and video components covering the entire mission with a slew of cameras. They ran the mission just like the real thing. When they ignited the SSMEs my heart started racing.

I've attached a few of my shots, there's also a series of YouTube videos that cover the entire mission. If you want to be blown away, watch the "launch" video complete with NASA launch imagery. As an added bonus, if you look carefully, you'll see me pop in and out of the frame every now and then.

Joel Katzowitz

Joel Katzowitz

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Wow! Way cool. Love the walkout photo, with all of them in L/ESes....

Greggy_D

That's phenomenal for those kids! Heck, at 43 years old I'd love to do that today!

hoorenz

Hey! That is what I dreamt of when I was 12!

randy

Way to go kids! Keep up the great work.

hotdog

That is so cool! Mad props to the teachers, faculty and parents who put this together.

And they even make their own mission patches! Check them out about 25 minutes into the launch video.

Robert Pearlman

Joel, is NASA aware of the great work being done here? If not, I really think their education division would be thrilled to learn of it and might even volunteer support for STS-17...

onesmallstep

Wow! What an amazing learning environment-the ultimate field trip. This is where the next generation of space explorers are inspired. Two questions: has the school's efforts won them any awards? And have current or former astronauts visited?

sts205cdr

Beautiful! These kids, at least, will not soon forget that wonder we called the Space Shuttle program!

Glad to see at least one fire extinguisher in one of the pics, hope there's more handy in the Orbiter. Do they practice emergency evacuation drills?

mikepf

That is just absolutely fantastic.

garymilgrom

!! The spirit lives on. Thanks Joel.

p51

LOVE IT.

Yet another reminder how substandard my school system was growing up (seriously, I thought school nurses were something Hollywood invented, I didn't know they existed in real schools anywhere until i was in my 20s).

Joel Katzowitz

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:Joel, is NASA aware of the great work being done here?

Robert, I really don't know if word of this amazing program has reached NASA. If you have a connection or contact there I would be delighted to reach out to them. I do know that, through a friend of mine, Fred Haise knows about the program. He passed the info on to John Wilson, Infinity Executive Director.

As far as support from any astronauts, outside of some autographed photos, I don't know. This is the first year I've been peripherally involved.

I shared the link to this post with Chris Laster, the teacher who put the program together so he may be able to provide more insight.

lspooz

Imagine the looks on the kids' faces if an astronaut or mission control veteran showed up as a consultant (unannounced to the media, just as a treat to the hardworking teachers and organizers).

Joel Katzowitz

quote:Originally posted by hotdog:And they even make their own mission patches!

Yes, they had their own STS-16 mission patches made along with mission specific T-shirts.

At the post flight ceremony my wife received an "official" certificate with a mission flown penny affixed to it. I tried to buy it from her but so far she's resisted my offers.